Sunni Arab politicians called for a government of national unity Saturday and signaled they will use their increased numbers in parliament to curb the power of rival Shiites, who have claimed the biggest number of seats in the new legislature. Also, a U.S. Muslim advocacy group arrived in Baghdad to issue an appeal for the release of American hostage Jill Carroll, seized Jan. 7 in Baghdad. Kidnappers threatened to kill her unless all women detainees were released by Friday — a deadline which passed without any releases or word on Carroll's fate. At least 11 Iraqis were killed in a spate of bombings and shootings across the country. Three policemen died in a car bombing in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and Britain announced that a security contractor was killed in a roadside bombing. Five bodyguards of President Jalal Talabani also were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in northern Iraq, police said Saturday. Talabani was not with them at the time. ... http://www.usatoday.com

Iraq National Security Adviser Mowaffak Rubaie has launched a scathing attack on secret American-led talks with insurgents, saying the process could encourage more violence. He said the procedures are counterproductive and will increase the insurgents' morale and clout. "I think the Americans are making a huge and fatal mistake in their policy of appeasement and they should not do this. They should leave the Iraqi government to deal with it," he told The Washington Times in a telephone interview from Baghdad. The talks -- begun in secrecy several months ago and first reported by The Times in December -- succeeded in producing a truce for the Dec. 15 national elections. They also were intended to set the basis for an overall deal with hard-line Sunnis that would isolate al Qaeda fighters from other Arab countries. ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060119-105756-9923r.htm

A fundamental change overtaking the Army is on display in classrooms across this base above the Missouri River. After decades of being told that their job was to close in on and destroy the enemy, officers are being taught that sometimes the best thing might be not to attack but to co-opt the enemy, perhaps by employing him, or encouraging him to desert, or by drawing him into local or national politics.It is a new focus devoted to one overarching topic: counterinsurgency, putting down an armed and political campaign against a government, the U.S. military's imperative in Iraq.Officers studying at the Army's Command and General Staff College here are flocking to elective courses on the subject, with three times as many enrolled this year as last. Soon the Army will require a block of instruction in counterinsurgency for all of the 1,000 or so majors who attend the college each year....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/20/AR2006012001906_pf.html

Dozens of journalists and Westerner civilians have been kidnapped in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion, but few victims have commanded the Muslim sympathy that freelance writer Jill Carroll has garnered.Carroll, an American, adhered to the social and religious customs of the land where she wrote about the plight of the people.She was kidnapped January 7 after a failed attempt to interview an Iraqi politician in western Baghdad. Now that Sunni politician and many of his fellow Muslims and Iraqis are asking Carroll's kidnappers to let their friend go. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the General Conference of the Iraqi People, said Friday at a news conference carried on Arab satellite channels that Carroll's abductors should release her in the name of Allah....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/20/iraq.journalist/index.html?section=cnn_world

Google is defying a request by the US government to hand over data revealing what its users are searching for online. The Bush administration wants a list of requests entered into Google's online search engine in an unspecified single week. It also wants 1m randomly selected web addresses from Google's databases. The White House said the information is part of an effort to protect children from online pornography, and would not violate personal privacy - but the request immediately raised concerns. Rights groups in the US are already on alert after revelations that the White House authorised phone tapping without court orders. "This is exactly the kind of thing we have been worrying about with search engines for some time," Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum told the Associated Press. "Google should be commended for fighting this." Yahoo and Microsoft confirmed they had handed over similar requested information to the US government. America Online said it had complied in part,...http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1691827,00.html

An audiotape from al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was posted Friday on an Islamic Web site, but U.S. officials said the recording does not appear to have been made recently and may even date back years. In the audiotape, al-Zawahiri read a poem praising "martyrs of holy war" in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. The tape made no mention of a Jan. 13 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting al-Zawahiri and killed four al Qaeda leaders. The CIA verified the voice as al-Zawahiri following a technical analysis, an agency official said. It was unclear when the recording was made, although the poem referred to Afghanistan martyrs in the period during Northern Alliance action against the Taliban that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the CIA official said. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/terror/main1226006.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=World_1226006